The flat panel display industry has been attempting to employ inkjet printing to manufacture display devices, in particular, color filters. When inkjet printing techniques are applied in high throughput manufacturing, it is beneficial to maximize system reliability while minimizing system down time by rapid troubleshooting. System failures can arise in one or more printing channels due to clogging, electronics malfunction and variation of printhead parameters. In the case of electronics malfunction and variation of printhead parameters, it is cumbersome to manually examine signals to isolate the location and nature of a specific failure. Accordingly, apparatus and methods are needed to efficiently acquire data, test reliability and troubleshoot failures in inkjet printer systems.